Haiti Journal - Day #3 “Medical Clinic in Seguin”

 Day #3 

Medical clinic #1 

I awoke this morning with a massive tension headache running through my shoulders. The kind that makes me want to take a bunch of ibuprofen and crawl back into bed! But that’s not on the agenda for today! 

What a day! I am so, so thankful that it is time for bed. We saw 296 people in our clinic today, which is a record number for Seguin. 

While the clinic seems to be chaos, it is actually fairly organized chaos! Hannah is extremely well organized when it comes to these clinics, and she puts a lot of time, effort and energy into preparing and planning. Last night she assigned everyone their jobs for today, and thankfully I have the same job I’ve done for the past three medical clinics. Officially, my title is lead lab tech. That’s a glorified name for “urine and pregnancy person”! :) A few weeks ago, it looked like we would have several Haitian doctors and nurses on our team, but things changed per usual. We had one Haitian nurse, Samuela, who came with us from Port-au-Prince, and then today a Haitian doctor showed up to help in the clinic. He is a doctor in Jacmel who has recently started coming to Seguin two days a week. We also have several Haitian pastors that have given of their time this week to share the Good News of the Gospel  with the people who come to the clinics. It was such a blessing to me to hear the Haitian people singing “The Solid Rock” this morning while we were setting up clinic. 

We didn’t see anyone that was terribly ill today, but we saw a lot of pregnant mamas, people with high blood pressure, and hungry people. We handed out a lot of the RUTFs (highly nutritional meals for kids) to the mamas with large families. 

We started setting up for the clinic around 6:00am, and we weren’t back up to the mission house until 5:30pm. It was quite the long day! We did take a short lunch break, but then got right back to seeing people. While it was exhausting, it was such a privilege to serve in this way here in Haiti today. I learned how to give a hemoglobin test today as well as a malaria test! It was a busy and full day, but God protected us. He gave us the energy to do what we needed to do. 

Tomorrow will be a very early morning as we will be leaving for Chota at 5:00am. It’s 9:00pm, I’ve climbed up the mountain many,  many times today. We are all ready for bed. Moriah, Hannah and I packed up the medications for tomorrow’s clinic while others counted out vitamins, anti acid tablets and iron tablets. My forehead is still tender and sore, but I’ll live. God is good. It is such a blessing to see so many Haitian pastor here and wanting to tell others about Jesus. To God be the glory! 

Bag update! Good news- our bags are found! The bags are back in Port-au-Prince! Apparently, they never made it off of the MAF flight, so they went back to Port-Au-Prince. MAF will be putting the bags on a flight to Jacmel tomorrow morning, and Pastor Falde has reached out to someone to see if they’ll bring our bags up the mountain. While my bag isn’t nearly as essential, I’ll be happy to have my own pillow, those nutritional meals, and all that food! Hannah needs her bag for the medical clinic, so we are very happy that it looks like we will be able to get the bags back sooner rather than later. 

So many people stepped up today and worked outside of their comfort zones! It was amazing to see everyone working together. Ashley stepped into the role of “consultant” as in she saw people and prescribed treatment. Emelie, Amanda, Gina and I worked in pharmacy and the lab. Hannah managed about everything and everyone all while not losing her mind- I have no idea how she did that! Beka Falde managed the people waiting after triage, while Jodi  and Jackie worked in triage. Moriah Falde helped in pharmacy and also helped with “consultations”. Those that weren’t helping in the clinic today took a hike to check out a place for a landing strip someday. They also worked on projects around the mission house, and whatever else needed doing. Honestly, I didn’t see much of Garett today but I know that he’s in good hands with Micah and Josiah Falde and my dad is around here somewhere! God is good! 

Haiti missions trip- Day #2! “Bags found, Bags Lost!”

 Haiti Day #2

It was an early morning! We arrived at our hotel in Miami around 9:00pm, and then showered and hopped in bed! 3:00am comes early! 

Ashley and I spent some time praying for the trio before going to sleep, but my mind just kept on going. I don’t think I will ever forget how abundantly God provided for Garett and I to go on this trip in 2021. I am so thankful for Rogers willingness to chauffeur kids, make meals, watch the dogs, and keep everything moving along, as well as work a full-time (or more) job. I am so blessed to be married to him. His quiet faithfulness and kindness remind me of how good God is to me. The mercies of the Lord are new every morning! 

It’ll be an interesting day today. We arrived at the airport around 4:15am, and made it through security without a hitch. Then the quest to find one last cup of good American coffee began! There were not very many options this early in the morning, but at last we found an open coffee shop. Yay! 

Our flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 6:00am, so we thought that we’d have plenty of time to get coffee, fill water bottles, and use the bathroom. But by 5:26am, the crew was making the final boarding call! Josh was still in line for a bagel, when the final boarding call came. The lady took the bagel out before it was finished, but Josh made it on the plane! It was kinda crazy though because then we sat on the plane until 6:00am to depart! 

When we arrived in Port-au-Prince, we had to pay the fee to get into the country. Then navigate through customs after picking up all our bags. We’ve been praying that all our bags will arrive and that we will clear customs without any problems. While in the customs line, a lady was taking everyone’s temperatures. She then asked me if I had a Covid test. I replied, “Yes, but not recently.” She wanted to see proof that I had had a Covid test, but of course I couldn’t produce it! She then proceeded to ask me my telephone number so I rattled it off, and then she replied, “Go ahead”. I was completely baffled, and it totally caught me off guard! Haiti is not requiring Covid tests for entry, so I’m not sure what her purpose was in asking if I had one. Oh well! Anyways, we navigated that hurdle and then on to baggage claim. 

We had met up with the rest of the team in Miami so we had twelve people and over 24 bags-each weighing close to 50lbs! After collecting our bags, I noticed that I was missing a suitcase....not again?! While nothing of extremely great need is in that suitcase, I don’t bring stuff to Haiti for the fun of it-we need it! That particular suitcase contained my pillow, sleeping bag, nutritional meals for children, and food! 

After a few moments of chaos and confusion one of the baggage people came over with the suitcase. Thank you, Lord! Of course the baggage man needed a tip, so I gave one to him and his friend quite gladly. Then Grandpa Falde told me that he also had already tipped the man! Oh well! 

We made it through customs with only one bag being pulled- a bag full of vitamins! The custom agent wanted Hannah to produce a paper saying that the vitamins weren’t expired. Hannah had brought along one, but she didn’t know which bag it was in. Hannah told them that the vitamins weren’t expired (truth) and that she was bringing them to children (truth). She also produced her nursing license certificate that is printed on fancy paper and lots of English words, and that was good enough! On our way again! 

Next step was to load all the bags and people into one large dump truck for the five minute trip over to the MAF office. The trip was uneventful, and we arrived at the MAF office safely. There we unloaded everything and everyone. Everything and everyone had to be weighed. And then we waited...and waited... We needed to take two flights to Jacmel to get everyone and all the bags there. Eight people went on the first flight and lots of luggage too. Then some of us (myself, Garett, my dad, grandpa Falde,) waited for the next flight. Our Haitian nurse joined us at the MAF airport to join us on the second flight also. It was kinda a long morning, but we all survived. Around 11:45am, the plane came back from its first trip, and shortly afterwards, we were on our way. It was a very windy day, and kinda bumpy, but we made it. In fifteen minutes we took a flight that is normally a three hour drive! 

Some of the team had already left for Seguin when we arrived in Jacmel as they needed to get started with sorting out the medical supplies. There was supposed to be two dump trucks to take us to Seguin, but only one truck was there...a small one. It wasn’t big enough to take us all up to Seguin. It was not big enough for the five of us that had been on the plane, plus the two ladies that had waited for us in Jacmel, and two Haitian cooks and their stuff too! The truck was a small one with a welded frame (like bars over the pickup frame). I hopped up into the pickup bed to help load the bag. I turned around and smacked my head right on that welded frame! Immediately I felt the warm and sticky substance of blood on my face. The Haitian man that was helping me load the bags immediately gave me his handkerchief to put on my forehead. Another Haitian dumped water on the wound and applied pressure. No one was wearing gloves, nothing was sanitary or overly clean, but they jumped in to help an ditzy American. Jackie (one of the ladies that had gone on the first flight) had some bandaids, so we slapped two of those on my forehead, and carried on. I had a very bad headache, like the kind you feel like throwing up from. But there was no time for resting, and I’ll survive! I drank some water, took some meds, and started up the mountain. On the back of the small dump truck was myself, our Haitian nurse (Samuela), two Haitian cooks, and two other ladies from the team (Jackie and Amanda). My dad, Garett, and Grandpa Falde waited in Jacmel for another dump truck to take them and the rest of the bags up to Seguin. We made good time in our little dump truck and it only took us 2 1/2 hours to get up the mountain. 

When we arrived, I helped to put away stuff from the many bags we had brought. Some sorted clothes to give away, some worked on other jobs, etc. We worked on emptying out bags and suitcases, and we realized we had a problem. We had acquired a bag that didn’t belong to any of us! Somehow we had managed to get a bag at he MAF office that didn’t belong to any of us! Someone was missing their bag! 

Oh but wait! So were WE! We realized that we were missing two suitcases! That same suitcase that had been missing in port-au-prince was missing again! And Hannah was missing one of her medical bags that she needed for clinic! Perhaps the bags were left on the second flight that MAF took? We didn’t know...we just knew that we had had ALL the bags when we arrived at the MAF office so the confusion happened somewhere there. Pastor Falde tried to call the MAF office but they were already closed for the day. Where were those bags? On someone else’s mission trip? Stolen? At this point, we have no idea! It sure would be a bountiful blessing if we could get those bags back! 

Tomorrow we begin our first clinic in Seguin @ 6:30am. It’s sure to be a busy and full day. We don’t have as many medical personnel as a we usually do on these trips, so those that are medical people or know what they are doing will be kept very busy! It’ll be exciting to see how God works through me in the next few days. God is good! 

But now, it’s almost 10:00pm, and I have 25, 000 steps. I have a major headache, and I’m going to bed. I’m thankful that there was an extra sleeping bag at the mission house, and that some dear Haitian lady washed this sleeping bag. It doesn’t smell moldy, there is no rat poop on it, and it smells like fresh air- Thank you, Jesus! 

Haiti Journal Day #1- $32.00 Carryon!

 We’ve been back from Haiti for just over a week now, and I’m pretty sure my mind is still whirling from all the events, sights,  and activities that we put into the days we were there. I am so thankful for all that God has done and will continue to do. Roger said the hardest thing about me being gone this time was the amount of food that Chandler and Wyatt can eat these days! Roger didn’t plan to work all the days we were gone, but he ended up working almost every day. I’m so thankful that God orchestrated it for Chandler to stay home this year as he was able to keep the laundry caught up, the dogs taken care of (my sisters dogs) and everyone fed (a lot of eggs, ramen noodles, and bread!). We are also deeply thankful for so many of our friends that either helped to transport our children, kept them overnight, loved on them, and encouraged them. Wow! We are so very blessed! My friend, Renee, told me that one of the days that I was away Emma looked rather sad at lunchtime. Renee went over to talk to Emma and asked her if she missed her mom. Emma replied, “yes, I miss my mom.” Renee asked if there was anything she could do to help Emma. Emma looked at her for a moment and then answered hopefully, “Maybe some ice cream?” Oh goodness! That girl! Renee did have a doughnut hole so that seemed to help Emma not miss mom so much! I got a good chuckle out of hearing about that! 

I journaled every day that we were in Haiti, but the days were long and tiring. I know that I left out more details that I normally have in years past, but between getting up between four and five am, working hard all day, coming back from clinic and resorting and counting meds, and then going to bed around 10pm, I was tired! However, I do want to write about the journal entries that I did make and share some photos from the trip. We are currently working on a slideshow for church and it’s been a challenge! I took over 1000 photos and now we are trying to make a four minute slideshow! But, by the grace of God, we will figure it out.  

When we came back from Haiti, Garett had a slight stomach bug so he stayed home on Thursday, but I went right back to teaching kindergarten! I was so happy to see my students again, and I was reminded of how thankful I am that I get to teach them. Chandler also stayed home from school that Thursday as he was tired too. Roger said that he had done a lot of the helping to pack lunches, meals, laundry, vacuuming...I’m always amazed at how everyone steps up when mom is away! 

Anyways...I’m ready to write. Day #1 - January 11, 2021

We can probably all relate to the fact that God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes we can see those works clearly evident and today was one of those days! 

Garett, Ashley and myself left firm school around 10:30am. I had wanted to teach this morning as I want to be away from my class as little as possible. Needless to say, that decision made for a crazy Sunday of packing and preparing! It was a late night, but we arrived at the school by 6:50am. on Monday morning with all our bags in tow! Travis ended up forgetting his backpack and lunch box in the flurry of the excitement, but he will survive on some snacks from the school snack box today. 

We arrived early at the Bangor airport -around noon. I figured we would have about an hour wait before anyone else showed up, but just as we were unloading our bags, Hannah and Josh showed up. Then it was a mad dash to weigh all the bags, redistribute weight, and make sure all the bags were at the right weight....50 lbs! Most of the bags were already at 48.5-50lbs. So there was not a lot of extra weight space! We still had some vitamins that needed to go somewhere and some hygiene kits and some odds and ends. I had kinda poked fun at Ashley earlier for not having a backpack AND a carryon, so I was giving her grief about not having a carryon for us to put all this miscellaneous stuff into! But then Hannah said, “Well, we have a lot of time before the flight. If Ashley wants to drive over to Marshalls, maybe they’ll have a carryon there.” So Ashley and I hopped in her van and drove over to Marshalls. In less than ten minutes we had found a carryon (and on the clearance rack for $32.00) and had checked out. While driving back to the airport, Hannah called to say she didn’t think we would need the carryon after all because the two other ladies coming from Maine had arrived.   Gina and Jodi both had space and weight in their bags. But since we had already checked out, Ashley decided to just keep the carryon. And when we arrived back at the airport, we stuck a few random things in the carryon anyways. 

We went to check in with all our bags, and between the seven of us coming from Maine we only had about seven pounds to spare! Yes, we packed with a scale and we squeezed out our 50lbs each!  We had thirteen  checked bags each weighing about 50lbs. After going through security, we headed for our gate. The flight attendant asked if anyone would like to gate check their carryon. Hannah’s husband, Josh, said “Yes, please!” His carryon was full of prenatal vitamins and weighed about 65 pounds! The flight attendant took it down the ramp, but then returned to tell Josh that the carryon was too heavy, and the bag would have to go as a checked bag and not a carryon. And we couldn’t just redistribute the weight among our other carryons because the flight attendant had sent the bag to the ticket counter! Now what?! We had about twenty minutes until the flight left and one of our bags was at the ticket counter and overweight! And it was a very important bag to boot! 

Hannah and Josh took the carryon that Ashley had just bought and headed to the ticket counter. After about five minutes, Hannah called me to tell me that she had left her passport in her backpack at the flight gate! So I took my passport and boarding pass, and Hannah’s passport and headed to the ticket counter. Thankfully the ticket agent was very helpful! He was willing to check the carryon at no additional fee if we could get the bag to weigh at or under fifty pounds. So Hannah took out fifteen pounds of vitamins and put them into the carryon that Ashley had just bought! Now to hurry back through security dragging Ashley’s carryon along. We made it through security and back to the gate. We were the last ones to board that plane. Without that carryon we would’ve been struggling to figure out what to do as Josh’s carryon was too heavy to go as a checked bag, and none of us had a lot of extra space in any of our carryons. 

I’m so thankful that God worked out all those details so that we would have exactly what we needed, and right on time! 

We flew from Bangor to Charlotte and then Charlotte to Miami. We had an overnight layover in Miami, and then an early morning flight to Port-au-Prince tomorrow. We arrived in Miami around 9:00pm, and we figured out how to Uber to our hotel. The hotel shuttle isn’t running due to Covid, but thankfully all our checked bags are checked through to Port-Au-Prince. All we had to worry about was getting ourselves and our carryons to the hotel. 

We are thankful to be at our hotel. It was nice to spend some time praying with Ashley before falling asleep. I am very much looking forward to seeing all that God is going to do in the next week. To God be the glory! 

Christmas Break! And Haiti!

 Welcome to 2021! It’s hard to believe that a new year is already upon us! While 2020 was full of challenging moments, I am thankful for several things that happened during 2020. But more on that later because for now I want to recap on Christmas break and give a Haiti update!

Christmas break was great! Our family has been saving for three years to go on a family vacation together. We had thought we would go on a cruise, but 2020 kinda but a damper on the cruising industry! So we took our five gallon jug of silver coins, went to the bank, and decided that we were going to take a family trip to Florida over break! Crazy? Sure! Amazing? YES! We left on December 23 and spent the whole week in Florida. We enjoyed some warm weather (and some quite chilly), we soaked up hours and hours of swimming together, and we savored our time together. It was a much, much needed time together as a family. It was truly an amazing week. While Covid exists in Florida, they sure are a lot more chill about the whole thing, and that was greatly appreciated by all of us. We experienced a few chilly days in Florida.  When we woke up on Christmas morning the temperature was 39 degrees! However, the pools were heated at the resort we stayed at, so off we went to go swimming! We had almost the entire water park to ourselves, so that was kinda a neat thing. I thought the kids might miss the tree, the presents, and the excitement of Christmas Day, but all of our kids asked if we could do this kind of trip again next year! It was a different way to spend Christmas Day with the Christmas story reading in our condo, swimming, and lunch at WaWas (a kind of gas station/convenience store), but I wouldn’t trade the memories for anything! 

One of the best things about Christmas break was having two weeks off of school! This gave us time to fly to Florida and still have a few days upon returning home before school resumed. 

Garett and I are leaving for Haiti in the near future. Chandler will not be able to go on this trip due to the whole passport situation. I’ve been on the phone with the passport people so many times that they probably know me by name! Since Chandler is a minor, both parents must appear with him. However, they won’t give you an appointment until 72 hours before leaving the country. The only available appointment is for the day that we are scheduled to leave. And I mean the only available appointment! We looked within a seven state radius and there are simply no appointments available! It’s frustrating and disappointing, but God still has a plan. While Chandler is disappointed, Roger and I are both at peace with the situation. Roger will need to work while I am away, and it’s helpful for Roger that Chandler will be around. Chandler can cook food, do laundry, and keep things going while Garett and I are away. In fact, some of the house will probably be better managed than when I’m home! Our pile of things for Haiti continues to grow at a great speed, but so far we haven’t packed any clothes! I have a bunch of things I want to take with me that I wasn’t able to bring two years ago....remember when my suitcase was lost?! However, when its’ time to go, we will be ready...Lord willing! I spend a lot of my time trying to prep for my subs, make a simple meal plan for the family while I’m gone, coordinate pick up and drop off for our children, and make sure that I am leaving clear directions for those teaching my classes. Somehow, God always makes a way for all the pieces of the puzzle to fall into place. Some of you have already given towards Chandler’s trip. Ive reached out to many of you, but if I have not and you’d like the money you give to be returned, we are happy to return it. God has provided for Garett and I in a great and mighty way...far exceeding what I could’ve dreamed possible! Last year when I donated my missions trip money to Parakaleo when we weren’t able to go, I knew that I’d need to come up with $1600 again for the next trip. But, we serve an amazing God! So many people have been generous and thoughtful with their monetary gifts for our family. Others have offered to help with our children at home. And many of you have covered us in prayers. Please continue to do so!